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A miscarriage of justice occurs whenever suspects or defendants or convicts are treated by the State in breach of their rights...A conviction arising from deceit or illegalities is corrosive of the State's claims tolegitimacy on the basis of its criminal justice system's values such as respect for individual rights. In this way, as well as the undesirable fate of the individual, the "moralintegrity of the criminal process" suffers harm. Moreover, there may be practicaldetriment in terms of diminished confidence in the forces of law and order leading tofewer active citizens aiding the police and fewer jurors willing to convict even the blatantly "guilty".
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The is quotation is taken from
Miscarriages of Justice
which is an update of 
 Justice in Error,
 published in 1993 in the wake of the infamous Birmingham Six and Guilford Four cases. The book questions whether the criminal justice system has been sufficiently reformed to prevent similar gross miscarriages of justice. It is written in the reasonable and rational style of its editors - a professor of criminal justice and a barrister. In such abstract language it is possible to question 'theState's claims to legitimacy' without being accused of being an anarchist. What such formal andobjective language cannot do is express or comprehend the bitter anguish and depths of despair of those who have been subject to a gross miscarriage of justice.Indeed, it might be that it is simply impossible within the sober language of fact, within thelanguage of the law as rational discourse; to express such actualities. It may be that other media – such as poetry, music or painting – are required to evoke a sufficiently powerful response. But sincelanguage is the tool to hand, the following will have to suffice to make a connection between the
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Miscarriages of Justice : A Review of Justice in Error,
Clive Walker and Keir Starmer (Oxford, 2004) page 33
 
abstract and the concrete. Between the corrosion of state legitimacy and the experience of anactual human person who lost his rights 30 years ago. Between a conviction arising from illegalityand the walls of a real prison. Yet such connections must be made if a miscarriage of justice is to beoverturned.To begin, here is the criminal justice system speaking in words as dry as dust regarding appealsagainst a miscarriage of justice. “(2) The Court of Appeal shall, in considering whether to receive any evidence, haveregard in particular to— (a) whether the evidence appears to the Court to be capable of belief;(b) whether it appears to the Court that the evidence may afford any ground for allowing the appeal;(c) whether the evidence would have been admissible at the trial on an issue which isthe subject of the appeal; and(d) whether there is a reasonable explanation for the failure to adduce the evidence atthe trial.”The following quotation is from a book by Bob Short who lived as a punk squatter in CampbellBuildings near Waterloo in the south London borough of Lambeth in 1979/80. The police whoallegedly ' played a game where they threw tiny stones at [Scarecrow's] open mouth to see whocould score the first point' would have been based at Kennington police station.Scarecrow had been the first to die. Loaded up on sleeping pills, he went up to the roof for reasons unknown. He might have been bored, depressed or just needed a minute to himself towatch the moon come up over the buildings. Who knows why any of us do anything? Heeither overdosed or fell asleep and froze. We never found out which. By accident or design, itwas a sad and lonely passing. In the morning, the police played a game where they threw tinystones at his open mouth to see who could score the first point. Grief spilled out onto thecourtyard below but the authorities had marked out their patch with strips of MetropolitanPolice tape, He belonged to them now.From that moment on, death watched over us with an icy gaze. It was capricious but it wouldnot be denied. Parents came to reclaim bodies, cut hair, choose suits and re-brand with longabandoned names. Their control, thought long lost, won out in the end. These prodigal sonsand daughters found repose in the leafy suburbs and towns from whence they thought they hadfinally escaped. They had found their little piece of England whether they liked it or not.The ghosts of those we knew and loved were never laid to rest. No graves marked the nameswe spoke. Their stories were wiped clean and altered as if Jesus was a real person and hehimself had washed and forgiven them of their sins. History is always written by the victor and the battles we waged looked all but lost.The world was dark and that darkness was rising up against us.It was police officers from Kennington who responded when Gary Critchley was foundlying seriously injured, and covered in blood, on the pavement outside [CampbellBuildings] in the early hours of Saturday 28th June 1980. He had sustained seriousinjury, including frontal lobe damage to his brain (caused by hammer blows to hishead,) a broken back, arm, and ankle. Analysis of his blood at the time indicated the presence of alcohol and sleeping tablets. The murder victim [Edward McNeill] was
 
found in an upper-floor room of the same squat building. Circumstantial evidence, and physical forensic evidence obtained at the time, suggested that both Gary, and thevictim, were attacked by a third party. Analysis of the blood found on Gary proved thatit had come from his injuries exclusively. None of the victim’s blood was found onGary.The evidence that was used to link Gary to the crime scene consisted of an un-tiedtraining shoe, found on his left foot when was discovered lying in the street. TheProsecution alleged that prints matching the training shoe were found at the crimescene. This training shoe was two to three sizes too small for him, and was not inaccordance with his usual type of footwear. He was found wearing a black, laced-upwork boot on his right foot (this fitted him correctly and was identified as being hisusual footwear).The case for the prosecution suggested the following improbable sequence of events:That Gary had attacked the victim, changed one of his shoes, self-inflicted a serioushead-wound with the hammer (a wound of sufficient severity to cause brain damage) – after he’d turned it around to ensure it was consistent with the blows to the victimshead- and jumped from the upper floor window of the fourth storey squat onto the pavement below.Witness statements for the prosecution were contradictory, inconsistent and containeddiscrepancies. Statements given to police by the other squatters had initially said thattwo to three hours after Gary and the victim had been seen entering the squat, three menhad arrived in a car. At least one witness described two of the men going upstairs to thesquat, while one man kept watch downstairs. This account was subsequently changedwhen presented as prosecution evidence in court. The defence counsel failed tochallenge the witnesses about the discrepancies between their statements and theevidence given in court and relied upon by the prosecution.In May 1981, Gary was convicted of the murder of Edward McNeill. Gary was 17 at the time.Although the original sentence was that he serve 9 to 10 years, Gary is still in prison 29 years later.A miscarriage of justice? No doubt, but one which has yet to be righted. To be righted, the evidence presented at the original trial will have to be unbelieved. If it can be found, necessary fresh evidence(capable of belief) will have to be presented, sufficient to cast fatal doubt upon the reliability of aconviction based on an 'improbable' sequence of events.If a sufficiently concrete piece or pieces of fresh evidence cannot be found, a more abstract attack may be necessary. Here the right to a fair trial would be involved. However relevant legislation (TheCriminal Appeal Act 1995) was enacted prior to the Human Rights Act 1998. The Home Secretaryin 1998, the Rt Hon Jack Straw MP stated that “The Act will guarantee to everyone the means toenforce a set of basic civil and political rights establishing a floor below which standards will not beallowed to fall”. Such Rights may be regarded as fundamental in a civilised Society.The right to a fair trial is contained in article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights.1.In the determination of his civil rights and obligations or of any criminal chargeagainst him, everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time
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